三穿掌 san chuan zhang
This change trains small koubu and small baibu steps, and chuanzhang with advancing and retreating steps, with switchover steps, winding ‘thread the flower and hit the tree’, and ‘point east and west’.
Movement names: Golden rooster shakes its wings, Swallow tosses its wings, Chuanzhang (x3), Drop stance turn (x3), Replace the support pillar, Dragon form.
Description: starting in dragon form walking with the left hand up.
Action One: Koubu the right foot, bring the arms across in front of the body a bit. Settle firmly into the right leg.
Action Two: Drop stance, thread the hands along the left thigh, both palms facing the thigh. Keep the right hand at the left arm’s elbow. (you may also start out the same as the double palm change, but without the large rising and falling action)
Action Three: Bring the right hand to the armpit. Step the right foot through to advance on the circle (slightly to the outside). Slide the right hand under the left arm to extend with a same side chuanzhang. Keep the stance short and settled, knees together. The chuanzhang is long – open the upper back, but do not over-reach.
Action Four: Do an extra tight koubu with the right foot to turn around, hooking the right hand. Drop stance on the circle line and thread the left hand along the thigh. If you can’t do a full drop stance, do a very clean half mabu. The slicing hand must pass below the knee and reach out with a liaozhang. Keep the body upright.
Action Five: similar to action three, continuing around the circle. The rear hand is coming from further away, so first bring it in to the ribs, then armpit, then slide out along the lead arm.
Action Six: same as action four, continuing around the circle.
Action Seven: same as action five, continuing around the circle.
Action Eight: same as action four, continuing around the circle.
Action Nine: same as action three, continuing around the circle.
Action Ten: Shift forward onto the left leg and bring the right foot in to hook behind the supporting knee. Raise the left hand straight up. Place the right hand palm up at the waist.
Action Eleven: Settle lower into the leg and turn the body into dragon form. Land the right foot forward and then start walking.
Variations of the Triple Chuanzhang Exchange
The variation I know is to do essentially the same actions – triple chuanzhang with a clearing action. This steps more freely, not dropping down, but sweeping across. So to start, with the first koubu, bring the arms across in front of the body a bit and settle firmly into the right leg. With the baibu, sweep the left arm horizontally across along with the leg, keeping the right arm extended to the right. Then step into the chuanzhang just the same. Because the right arm is extended behind, be sure to first tuck the hand into the armpit so that it can thread cleanly along the left arm. Do the three repeats, continuing around the circle, each time sweeping across. Finish the same. Because it uses a horizontal sweep, the triple chuanzhang can travel very fast around the circle.
Not really variations, but different ways to do it – you can step to a stance, step with a follow-in step, or step with a follow-in step plus a moving step. Each extra stepping pattern adds speed to the change, so you have to make sure you can manage the speed, staying solid and powerful.